Workin' For The Man

[tiny_dancer81]

The Dive never really got crowded until the weekends, but they had s steady stream of people coming in on weeknights as well. As the club's promoter, Theresa dealt with the reviewer from the local entertainment rag in addition to trying to book new acts. All in all, things were looking promising. With summer nearly here, the college crowd would have more time and money to spend in places like this.

The vampire was nursing a beer on the patio. She had thought of suggesting they start serving something stronger, but she hadn't gotten around to it yet. It sounded like the latest set was wrapping up. She checked her upper lip for beer foam, hauled her slight weight off of the bench where she'd been sitting.

Summer in Las Vegas might man the days were long, but the nights usually made up for it.

Comments

[maddy_ricks]

“Sure.” Maddy picked at the paper on her dead cigarette. “I’ve got some openings in my schedule.” She tossed the butt and stretched out her legs in front of her to examine her shoes. “It might do me some good to hang out with a chick. Other than Mel, it’s strictly dickly in my social circle.”

As an afterthought, she asked, "What was bugging you?"

[tiny_dancer81]

"The part where I wanted to bite you."

She might as well say it now, get it over with. It wasn't like she had a filter anyway. Maddy might not even be offended. Theresa looked at the key around the other girl's neck again, wondered if she'd ever been to any of the places she could reach with it.

"In a nice way," she added casually, as if that made it less weird. "Some people are into it."

[maddy_ricks]

Maddy affected a blasé attitude. “Ehh, you’re a vampire. It's par for the course, isn't it? If you didn’t want to bite me, I’d be offended. That being said,” she jabbed a finger in the air, “If you ever bare your teeth at me without my permission, I’ll open a swirling vortex to a land of perpetual sunshine and shove you into it. We clear?”

[tiny_dancer81]

"Crystal."

That really was kind of adorable. Or maybe she was just really susceptible to a pretty face.Theresa idly considered getting something new done to her hair. Maybe white streaks this time. Like the Bride of Frankenstein.

She held out her small hand in Maddy's direction, put n her best 'Aren't I harmless?' expression. "Let's shake on the hanging out thing, that way it'll stick. Also, I think Brian knows about me, but he hasn't said anything yet."

[maddy_ricks]

“He does.” Maddy leaned forward and shook Theresa’s hand, knees going akimbo. “He’s got his own shit going on, so he’s not completely freaked, just cautious because, hey, vampire. He told me he got in a physical altercation with one on the street, right out in the open. Some chick with red hair said hey, screw the onlookers, let’s rumble. They had a comic book style battle. I think there was property damage.”

She scratched her knee through a hole in her jeans.

“He didn’t tell me until way later.”

[tiny_dancer81]

"Huh. Yeah, most of us are pretty confrontational. Some of the girls are worse than the guys."

The slightest twinge of something that might have been guilt tried to open one eye, but Theresa refused to examine it. If twas Deanna, they had hung out once and she hadn't seen her in ages. Sometimes, the world was too small.

"I'm glad he made it out okay," she said in a neutral voice. "I like Brian all right, he's just a little spacy sometimes."

[maddy_ricks]

"He thinks too much, and he feels twice as much as a normal guy. If I were him, I'd get stoned all the time, too." Maddy always felt the need to defend him like a brother only she was allowed to insult. She looked up as a musician exited the building, a girl who played keyboard and did backing vocals. Though she gave a polite wave of recognition, Maddy mumbled without moving her lips, "I hooked up with her once. Total weirdo. She asked me to pee on her."

[tiny_dancer81]

"Ew, seriously?"

Theresa actually made a face at the idea. Whatever else she was, she wasn't into that. A girl had to have some standards.

"Can I get you a beer?" she asked Maddy, pointing towards the interior of the Dive. "I know you're not on stage tonight, but free beer is never under-rated."

[maddy_ricks]

Maddy nodded. Yeah, she was serious, and she might not have been so judgmental except the girl asked on make-out number two, leaving Maddy to wonder where things would have escalated from there. Best get out before she found out.

“Yeah, sure.” Far be it from her to turn down beer. She’d already had two and was feeling nice and loose. “Ply me with alcohol. I won’t say no.”

While she waited, Maddy climbed onto a large picnic table top and stretched out. Her ankles hung off the end, but it was otherwise a comfortable spot to view the orange-tinted night sky. A disc jockey was playing Blondie over the loud speakers while the bands switched out and she hummed the tune to Rip Her to Shreds

[tiny_dancer81]

One band was leaving the stage while another waited for them to vacate the stage. and Theresa diminutive form worked its way through the sparse crowd and to the bar. Teddy was pulling beers at the tap, his tattooed arms bare to the shoulders because he'd rolled the sleeves of his t shirt up. The vampire yelled his name over the music coming through the speakers, and he drew two drafts and passed them over.

Back outside, she handed one cup to Maddy and said, "So what's your life like in the daytime? I haven't seen the sun in five years. How does the living half...live?"

[maddy_ricks]

She half sat up and attempted to slurp beer without pouring it on her neck. Once setting it aside, she answered. “It’s boring. Especially because in Vegas it’s like the Rapture at 11 a.m. I do a bunch of side jobs to make money. I pour coffee, I waitress for a catering company, sometimes I do dumb stuff on the street to see if tourists will toss me change. I barely get anything from the ‘Nerves once it’s divided between the four of us. Strike that. Five, since Brian brought in that bitchy violinist part time.”

She made a bleh sound.

“Susie. She’s a half-breed, only she thinks I don’t know it.”